Donald Trump is already claiming that the election will be rigged against him. Today, President Barack Obama responded to Trump’s ridiculous “rigged election” talk, debunking the nonsensical conspiracy.
“Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?
The federal government doesn’t run the election process. States, cities, communities all across the country, they’re the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths.
And if Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated across the country, including in places like Texas, where typically it’s not Democrats who are in charge… That’s ridiculous. That doesn’t make any sense.
I don’t think anyone would take that seriously.”
Unfortunately, many people take Trump’s “rigged election” talk very seriously, both on the left and the right. Though voter fraud is essentially non-existent, GOP lawmakers have used the myth of a voter fraud epidemic to pass voter ID laws that prevent minorities and the poor – who overwhelmingly vote Democrat – from participating in the democratic process.
Recently, lower courts have begun to strike down these voter ID laws as unconstitutional and discriminatory. As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern documented, judges in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Texas, and Michigan have exposed the truth about these laws – that they are partisan attempts by Republicans to prevent specific groups from voting:
“Wisconsin could demonstrate virtually no evidence of voter fraud. It certainly couldn’t find enough evidence to justify the outrageously burdensome process the state created for obtaining an ID, a process that effectively disenfranchised thousands of (mostly minority) voters.
‘The Supreme Court recently reiterated that where a state law burdens a constitutional right, the state must produce evidence supporting its claim that the burden is necessary to further the state’s claimed interests,’ U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman concluded.
Just a week later, another U.S. District Judge in Wisconsin, James D. Peterson, went farther than Adelman, calling out the Legislature for its ‘preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud.’ This obsession, Peterson wrote, ‘leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities.’
Peterson squarely acknowledged that Republicans had passed the law ‘for partisan purposes, not out of any legitimate concern for the integrity of Wisconsin elections.’
The United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit flayed, filleted, and roasted the North Carolina Legislature for its egregiously racist voting law.
Republican legislators ‘requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices.’ Then, using this ‘racial breakdown’ of voting practices, the state proceeded to restrict every voting method preferred by minorities.
The 5th Circuit was similarly skeptical of the intent behind Texas’ severe voter ID law. In her majority opinion, George W. Bush appointee Judge Catharina Haynes found that the law had an illegally discriminatory impact on minorities under the Voting Rights Act.
No judge, though, has castigated phony justifications for voting restrictions as acidly as U.S. District Judge Gershwin A. Drain did in striking down Michigan’s recent ban on straight-party voting. The ban, spearheaded by Republicans, had a disproportionate impact on black voters, and significantly increased wait times and lines at polls in black communities.”
And despite these rulings, Republicans are still defending their discriminatory voter ID laws. North Carolina is appealing to re-instate its undeniably racist law, with the state Senate Leader and House Speaker accusing the judge of trying to support Democrats:
“We can only wonder if the intent is to reopen the door for voter fraud, potentially allowing fellow Democrat politicians like Hillary Clinton and Roy Cooper to steal the election.”
Given the hidden racism of these voter ID laws, which is finally being revealed by lower courts, it’s fitting that Donald Trump, the most openly racist candidate in modern history, is making accusations that the entire system is somehow rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton.
President Obama likened Trump’s comments to those of a child unable to accept that they lost a game, but even worse:
“I think all of us at some points in our lives have played sports, or maybe just played in a schoolyard or a sandbox, and sometimes folks, if they lose, they start complaining that they got cheated.
But I’ve never heard of somebody complain about being cheated before the game was over. Or before the score was even tallied.
So my suggestion would be, you know, go out there and try to win the election. If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on Election Day and ends up losing, then maybe he can raise some questions. That doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.”
Whether Donald Trump realizes it or not, his “rigged election” talk is quite dangerous. Given that anti-Hillary Clinton rhetoric has become increasingly violent and the violence of his voting base, a Trump loss could easily result in riots from those who feel the election was indeed rigged.
